Fantasy Vs Reality can they come together?

[Nygam]

Hi! I am glad to find this community site where people who love anime and God's creation who made it happen. This site I happen to stumble upon in Google. I was really desperate in trying to find people that can relate with my thought life because most people and churches I know of do not share the same interests. For as long as I have been a follower, I have struggled with how I can go about being myself and had a really hard time to enjoy people's company when you cannot love reality as you would with your fantasy. I grew up with a particular preference with same sex attraction and this problem can tie with my loneliness in the world I personally see as sad wasted youth. But I joined in hopes that I can find help in this loniness and find a real friendship of people who I can relate to.

It has been an a personal war with myself; I would hate to live my whole life meaningless. In my thought life, after I have been exposed to some anime/certain video games, I really feel like that I want to be this person or be friends with this person, being part of their adventure more than I would want with the here and now reality, where naturally people have a low self-esteem for each other, one way or the other, and that they from what I have seen don't really open their bubble/inner world. For all of my youth until now, I wished that I would have done something different about it if it was in my power, wished I grew with friends that we cared each other for and like for we are. I hate physical/social defects from myself and from everybody I know as much I as I try to show unconditional love. I have grew with preconcieved ideas that life would be similar as you have experienced in the world of anime/some kind of adveneture; it in turn can eventually set me up to being very self-asorbed. Being me must be the hardest thing in this confusing life/world.

I really encourage those who stuggle with about the same thing you are reading now, to share your story and hope that we can relate dispite who we look like or who we are.

[K. Ayato]

I don't think you should have put this up in Prayer Requests. It's more fitting for the Testimonials forum. Mod move, please!

[Xeno]

Struggle with what same thing? Low self-esteem, same-sex attraction when they were younger, wanting desperately to be involved in an animu storyline?

Wishing you had grown up with super-awesome-great friends where you all cared for each other is a great fantasy to have, but not everyone gets to live that, in fact I'd venture to say that most people don't to experience that. And then saying "being [you] must be the hardest thing in this confusing life/world" is a pretty big leap man. No matter how hard you have it there is someone out there that has it, or had it, worse. It's easy to blow your situation out of proportion and make it seem like you live in the eye of a hurricane of misery, but more often than not you don't.

That being said, I don't know you personally, maybe you do have an abysmally awful life where nothing has ever turned out right for you, but that's not what I'm getting from your post, I'm just reading that you wish your life was more like one of those endearing slice-of-life animus. And I'm confused about what mutual struggle you're wanting people to share because what you listed seemed rather nebulous.

[K. Ayato]

And I'm wondering what's so bad with reality that you'd rather create your own dream world and stay in it? There's no harm in having dreams and imagination, but sooner or later, we all have to wake up and face the world in the gritty unpleasantness that makes up the majority of what we call reality.

[goldenspines]

Moved to Testimonies and Spiritual Growth since it didn't seem like you were asking for prayer (if you were, please let me know and I'll move it back.)

(I had this whole lecture thing typed, but then I was like 'screw it'. Sorry. XD)

So er, no, I don't really struggle with wanting to live in a fantasy world currently. I did when I was younger, though (preteen - teenager).
But now, while I still love fantasy and anime, the endless mysteries of reality still have yet to be unraveled and that's what drives me forward to explore.

[Zeldafan2]

I grew up into my teenage years with (and still have) a very big imagination. Even now, I'll envision myself talking to anime characters who for a reason (whether I decide to think of one or not,) come into reality, and have to adjust to it. This isn't neccesarily a result of lonliness, I come from a large family, and there is almost always someone to talk to, but its mote of a creative exercise to me. Somewhat like writing without the writing. On some occasions, I'll hang out with my younger brother, and share adventures like this with him.

I try to apply this wild imagination to my writing, although it doesn't always help that much. (I have improved in writing over the years, but I wouldn't say I was very good.)

However, when I was younger, I was very shy. I didn't really have interest in talking to people, and after I had a rather saddening situation during recess which I will not go into details on, I shut people out entirely. I started to dwell into a strange mindset which made me think of myself as above others who wasted their time talking and socializing with other people. While I know that obviously this mind set was wrong, I didn't consider that being a possibilty at the time.

However, when I did start to make friends, I realized that I was wrong. If I continued my previous state of being, I knew that I would be a hypocrite for still saying so. I suppose you could say God opened my eyes to how wrong I had been about other people, in a way I suppose to try and humble myself, and consider the thoughts and opinons of other people, not shut them out like I used to.

Now, I still occasionally struggle with crawling back under that very same shell, the one where I felt confident because I felt like I was better than other people. With God's help, however, I was able to look past this flawed belief, and realize the full impact that all people can have in God's eyes.

[SilverToast]

You're not alone Zeldafan2 . I went through the same thing as a kid and teenager. I'm glad that I'm over that and know that everyone isn't perfect. That we should always be forgiving and considerate or else we all get bitter about reality. Although I really didn't do anything good with my time that I thought others were wasting. hahah such hypocrisy with me back then. ha

Edit
I had this small lecture about how you should learn from your mistakes and appreciate life but I missed the "For all of my youth until now," part. I misunderstood the post and thought you were still going through that problem Nygam. XD

Congratulations for putting up a testimony. It takes courage to do that!

[Nygam]

To retell my story differently and more clear, I started liking anime and beautiful guys in particular when I first have been exposed of this at first Saturday mourning cartoons then mainly anime on tv then on the internet mainly with other forms of media before I got into porn. And btw, I did not mean to come off as if I something compared to others. But I grew up with that. When I saw some of the attractive characters from these experiences, I really wanted someone in my life like that or wanted to be that person; I eventually made that a part of my perspective towards life, and to best put it ignore everyone else's world. As I stayed in my bubble, I had accumulated preconceived ideas of what life is supposed to be like. The rest of the story is hard to tell right now that I am using a touch device. This being a testimony is fine even though it can still be a prayer.

[SierraLea]

I know this problem all too well. As a person with Asperger Syndrome, I tend to escape into fantasy worlds A LOT. They help me to calm down, release my stress, and give me an outlet where I only have to concentrate on one thing, instead of a hundred people's reactions. When I was younger, I went seriously overboard, and tried to run away so my letter from Hogwarts could find me. Thank heavens I didn't.
Now, it's limited to wanting. I read all these books, see these great dreams that the characters have, and want one of my own. They also inspire me, like reading Bakuman and my writing hobby. They make me laugh.
I admit I like the characters in the book and sometimes see myself mirrored in them, like how Naruto is an outcast just like me. If I really like a story, I will put myself in it by means of an added character who's just like me, like the time I imagined what it would be like if Naruto had an older sister who carried the other half of nine tails. But that's it. I am pretty darn good at keeping reality and fansaty separate.

[raider~joseph]

I turned this fantasy world to my use for creating stories. I was just like this. (I daresay pokemon saved my life. If I wasn't into it proudly I would have adapted all the bad bully personalities of those around me.) I always longed for real true blue friends. But now I have them both on CAA and irl. I believe your as normal as any nerd who watches a fantasy world is. And if the ache gets too bad then do what I did. ROLEPLAY!